Postcards
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Laxus is forced to learn that, after so long, it's finally his turn to wait. - One-shot, set after About Life.


He was gone a lot.

Her whole life.

Not the entirety of it, of course. And he was always certain to spend some amount of time with her, when he was home. Then, when he wasn't, he was always certain to write to her. Not long letters or anything. He was hardly that sort of man. But he was sure to scribble a few words on a postcard or two, if he was going to be gone for a significant amount of time.

Laxus never thought she minded much.

Aura.

She was his only child, the first and the last, the one and only. Without a doubt, this meant a lot to him and he did care for her deeply. But at the same time, being a father was never his strong suit and it was a far more distant relationship than maybe she deserved.

But she never complained. At least not to him. And he figured if she did her mother, Mirajane, then he'd definitely hear about it. The woman loved to yell at him over any slight he made. For someone who showed everyone else such open love, she seemed to find it far easier to find faults in the man.

Not that he could blame her much.

He could be better. A lot of the times. But there was just something always…

Heh.

Laxus wasn't good at being open. Or loving. But he was really good at watching Aura practice her magic. And he was very good at patting her on the head, when he found her hiding away, somewhere in the guildhall, buried in a book. He liked to tell her the fantastical tales of his travels when she was little and, now that she was older, he was pretty good at taking some time out of his very limited free time, to listen to her go on and on about whatever drama was currently bogging down she and her friends.

He was a good father. He knew he was. Maybe not great, but he was there and it was more than he or most of his friends had, growing up. Aura was taken care of mostly by her mother, but considering who the woman was, he figured she couldn't be too upset about that either. Her aunt and uncle looked out for her too, Lisanna and Elfman, and the Thunder Legion had always doted on her. She had plenty of people to turn to, if she needed them.

But he knew how important he was to her.

She never said it, much the same way he found it difficult to put it in words in the reverse, but he knew she did. The second he was in town, he usually sought her out and no matter what she was doing or what plans she had, she was quick to coming over to his apartment to wait for the man. She liked it there and he never denied her, if he was home. It was comforting, to have her there. Around. When she was younger, it forced him to be a bit better too. Not drinking all night, drowning his sorrows. He had someone else to look after. She was the reason that he learned to cook, took to cleaning up after himself better, and made sure, if nothing else, that he never went too far. Out on a job. Or even away from it, in some seedy bar where someone was testing him a bit too much.

The amount of confidence and faith that Laxus had in himself was astronomical.

But he didn't have anything to prove anymore. If he ever did, honestly. The important thing was to come home. Always. So he could make dinner and listen to Aura go on and on about her stupid friends.

It was a reserved relationship, but it was one and he took great pride in it. And a lot of joy.

He always thought that she felt the same. They were alike in most other ways, anyways. For someone who spent so much time around her mother's bubbly side of the family and the woman's friends from the guild who were, well, much the same for the most part, Aura seemed to take have a much more...cool disposition. She wasn't outright cold, like him, and could actually socialize quite well for her age, even when she was young, but there was always else to it. To her. She pulled away, a lot, and even though she had so many friends in the guild, with the other young people that frequented it, Laxus found his daughter to be alone a lot. Or at least wishing for it.

"It's quieter," she remarked to Laxus once, when he found her hiding out from a party in the hall out on the balcony overlooking the grounds. It was a clear night, one with shining stars and a moon, giving her more than enough light to scan over the pages of one of her books as she sat with her back against the building, the tips of her toes just touching the adjacent railing. "Out here. In there's okay, but..."

"Yeah," he agreed with ease because he'd come all the way up there to smoke, not search out his daughter. But she was just as well, at his feet, as he went to lean over the rail. "I know."

It just always felt like they were on the same page, somehow. About a lot of things. But that was the one thing, huh? About unspoken things? You can never be completely and utterly certain, no matter how completely and utterly certain you feel, about another's perspective. Understanding.

And maybe, honestly, if he was being perfectly honest with himself...he didn't quite get all his own feelings correct either.

Though it was technically built to, it felt rather sudden to Laxus, when he arrived back in Magnolia one day, not to find his young daughter hanging around the hall awaiting his arrival, but rather her nowhere to be found. This wasn't wholly unnatural. She was frequent to go out on a job or two, with her uncle or aunt. Maybe tag along with another team. Or, sometimes, hanging around the hall all day just wasn't that much fun and she'd bail. Go training. Hang out with friends. Something.

Still, Laxus found himself questioning Mirajane about it, just a bit, as she approached the table at which he'd sat. The woman had come right over with a mug of ale before he even requested it, but as their eyes met, he found himself asking for something else.

"Where's Aura?" he asked as the woman set his drink down.

Things were in a pretty steady place between the pair of them currently, he and Mirajane. They'd begun their relationship as friends and he felt like, even though they'd gone through some down periods (even some of absolute hatred), he was glad to find they were still that. Friends. And...sometimes, when he drank a bit much and she looked at him just right, well…

But no.

Thoughts were thoughts. And things were better, he found, as friendly, but distant.

"Oh, I didn't even think to tell you," the woman sighed some to him then as her gaze was taken by some of the younger guys in the bar, who were being a bit too rowdy and would no doubt soon incite a brawl. "She went out on a job."

"That's all?" He tried hard not to sound disappointed as he drug his mug closer, paying little mind to the brewing fight. Most everyone knew better than to mess with him. And anyone who didn't would be quick to learn. "With who?"

"Oh, no, Laxus, I meant a real job."

"What?"

"Like...a serious one." And Mirajane's eyes were back on his, the blue irises alight as she told the man, "She begged and begged and I just thought, well, if she's ever going to be a real mage, then I have to start trusting her more. The job is pretty far out, at least a day or two away. The request sounded pretty serious too. I think that'll take her a bit to get it done, but I really have faith in her that she'll get it done." Mira looked off then, just a bit, as she added, "And if she can't, well-"

"She'll be fine." Laxus stiffened a bit though, in something of annoyance maybe as he didn't quite understand why it was that he wasn't at least consulted of this beforehand (though he only would be perturbed a short while before conceding his true lack of dominion over the girl), but still managed a long sip of his beer. Correcting himself then, he added, "She'll do fine."

And she would. Of course she would. She was a Dreyar. They didn't fail. It wasn't in their blood.

But he only heard about it, anyways, rather than been there to congratulate her. Make over her. Like her mother would be able to. Laxus had only planned on being home for a short while, given he'd already had plans with some other high ranking mages in other guilds, a party of sorts, and, well, he thought about canceling, to stick around, but he just thought he'd see Aura when he was finished.

If she was even home yet.

She wasn't, actually. But only because, as her mother told him, she was out on yet another job.

"You know how it is, Lax," she yawned at the front door of the Strauss house, where he'd gone to get Aura bright and early, for some training and breakfast. Instead, he was only presented with a very tired (and slightly annoyed at being awoken on one of her rare off mornings from the hall) Mirajane. "She's a wizard; she wanted to go right back out on another job."

"Well," he grumbled a bit, kind of put out (though Mira would argue she was the one who truly was, then) as he kicked his boots against the porch step on which he stood. "Is she alright, at least? Not all beat up?"

"I wouldn't have let her leave if she wasn't."

And he knew that. But...he kinda wished, maybe, Mira wouldn't have let her leave until, you know, she'd at least spoken to her father. Because while she'd been accompanying many people on jobs for years, even taken some small ones around town with her dumb guild friends for a bit, this was different. Her first real, big job.

And…

Laxus kinda thought they'd always do that together. If that's what she wanted. Not to go alone, but to go on a serious, solo mission with him. And he was sure they still would. Eventually. Of course they would. How could they not? And anyways, it felt so much like him, she was so much like him, to want to do it all on her own. To be getting it done all on her own.

Aura was her own person and he was so glad for this fact.

Still, he didn't want to hang around his apartment, he found, if she wasn't going to be hanging about with him. So he took off to, on his own job, and things would be better. The next time he came around. Or he ran into her, at least, his daughter.

He was a bit disoriented, as he always was after a long journey on the train, but he could place the girl anywhere. She was his own, after all. It helped that she was standing further down on the platform with some of her guild friends and the kids were messing around perhaps a bit too much, drawing some attention to them. The kinda stuff to be expected from kids on the cusp of maybe being teens or already teetering over into it, but still enraging to most adults. Fun. Laxus found himself kind of annoyed by their horseplay as well, when he was first passing with a head to his forehead, before he took note of his daughter among them.

Everyone always told her that she looked so much like her mother. And maybe she did, Laxus could give up that fact, but when he saw her for the first time after a few weeks, her features struck him far less than her overall presence. She just looked like his daughter. It wasn't anything physical. Not really. The only thing that tied them fully together was, maybe, their similar locks.

It was her presence. Even so young. It didn't matter her standing in the group of five or so kids she was standing in then, or even when she was spending her days more around the adults in the guild. She just had a certain air about her. One that he'd always felt as well. Though she lacked the smugness and perhaps some of the unadulterated talent, but her humility did little to mask her confidence.

Because it wasn't arrogance. Not in him. Confidence was far different. And he felt it in her as well.

Aura smiled in greeting when he approached then, but didn't move to hug him. They weren't much ones for that, the two of them. He figured she got it enough from the rest of her family.

Still, his presence wasn't much appreciated by her friends, who straightened up immediately at the presence of the man. Laxus was quite imposing, even for those who'd only been in the guild a short time. He ignored them, anyways, as he only addressed his daughter, his words causing a tint to rise to the girl's cheeks as it was her turn to shuffle her feet and mutter some things.

It was always hard. To get true praise from the man. But to be getting it then, in front of her friends, wasn't quite embarrassing, but was at least a bit overwhelming, maybe.

He didn't tell her much. Just that he'd heard about her jobs of late and that he was glad to hear she was doing so well at them. Then he removed the hand that had been soothing his pounding head and reached out with it, instead, to rest against his daughter's shoulder.

"You're doing good," was the most he could offer her, but somehow, it felt like too much. "So keep doing it."

He wished her well, anyways, on...whatever dumb shit she was looking to get into with her friends. Though, honestly, he could admit that he kinda wanted her to cancel whatever it was, to come home with him, to hang around him for awhile, Laxus found himself happy she could still do it, anyways. Have fun. Being a mage for him young had meant training and jobs constantly, all alone or, when the Thunder Legion started hanging about, with people just as drive and single minded as he.

Laxus didn't want that for Aura. He wanted her to be strong and powerful. To be something to be feared. To make a name for herself. Continue on the name he'd given her. But he never wanted her to be wholly like him.

Ever.

When Aura got back into town, it was a few nights later and, though it was late, she arrived at the hall regardless of it being closed. She knew her mother would still be there, closing up, and the woman smiled warmly when it was her daughter who entered the thick, hall doors rather than someone she'd be forced to turn away.

"I came to walk you home," she said easily and her mother only hummed in response, not rightly believing her.

"I'll make you something quick to eat," she told the girl with a soft sigh as Aura fell into one of the tables, her head falling down to it sleepily as her stomach growled in appreciation. "But I don't want to stick around long."

Neither did Aura.

But the well stocked kitchen of the bar beat whatever was awaiting them at home.

"Your dad just left on a job a day or so ago," Mirajane remarked when she came to set the plate down in front of her grateful daughter. As Aura grinned down at it, the woman said, "He's been trying to see you, but-'

"I did see him."

"Huh?"

"When I was leaving. At the station. He was there, stumbling around." At her mother's look, Aura grinned and assured her, "Just from motion sickness, I think."

"Well," Mira sighed as over a second time to place a drink before her daughter (Aura was disappointed to find it to be water as opposed to a fizzy soda, but, well, it was late), "I really want you to be around, when he gets back into town."

"Why?" But she didn't even give her mother a chance to answer as, with a crinkled nose she decided, "No."

"Aura-"

"That job's still there. I see it. The one you told me to leave for a week, to see if someone else wanted it." Aura pointed across the dim hall, over at the request board. "I went and did something else, like you asked, and now I wanna go on that job. You said I could."

"And you can. But your father-"

"I just," she complained, "saw him. And he won't care if I'm gone when he gets back or not. Why would he? He'd want me to take the job."

Maybe.

But even if they didn't spend a lot of time together currently, Mirajane always found herself somewhat in tune to the man. Sort of. He kept to himself very well, but she was rather good at reading her guildmates. The man seemed rather down, the past few times she'd seen him, especially after informing him their daughter wasn't about. It had been over a month at that point, since they'd spent any genuine time together. Maybe two. Mira knew she wouldn't want that much time to come to pass between she and her daughter.

And yet, she wasn't Laxus. While she could tell he was somewhat perturbed by the past few weeks, she also knew that he'd never want to keep Aura from a job on his behalf. From growth. Plus, Mirajane had no idea when he'd be back and she couldn't just bar the girl from going anywhere for days on the man's account. If he really wanted to see her, he would have waited for her.

That was the thing though, wasn't it? Mira could diagnose it, she felt, even from her distant observation. Laxus had a hard time admitting when someone hurt his feelings. Mostly because very few people did. Most of the time, others only aggravated or annoyed him. You had to care for someone, very deeply, to be genuinely hurt by them. Seeing as deep, interpersonal connections weren't something the man was known for (not even in the women he infrequently dated), it was hard for him to experience that sort of pain.

But he did care for Aura in that way. Whether he could easily admit it aloud or not. Which she was pretty sure he could, honestly. But to admit something was hurting him, that he could even feel such a thing still, well, that just wasn't in the slayer's wheelhouse.

So while it wasn't really her business, Mirajane did feel at least some need to rectify the unintended slight Aura had sent his way. But she couldn't force their daughter to do something. Especially not when the man wasn't even willing to broach the subject.

"You should just remember that he loves you too."

"Mom," Aura complained with a heavy frown, but the woman only shrugged.

"Just try and do something nice for him," the woman suggested as her daughter, completely annoyed by her mother prying into what she felt like was a completely separate relationship. "He'd really appreciate it."

Aura doubted it, heavily.

Her father was different than literally every other person she knew. It was more than just his power and arrogance (because yes, it really was arrogance). While he was so completely everything that Fairy Tail stood for, Laxus also always seemed so distant from it. A silent observer. It was much the same in his parenting style. Laxus was there and definitely a part of things, but she hardly ever saw him a background participant.

A bonus, if anything.

It was how she always felt growing up. There was her mother, who was the be all of end all. Then there was Aunt Lisanna, who cared for her frequently, followed closely by Elf, who hung around as well. And Gramps, he was pretty important, before his death. IT was hard to think of the man now, but she did have memories, perhaps not as strong as others in the hall, but she could remember sitting out on the man's back porch during the summer, listening to him talk while they watching lightning bugs dance around in awe.

Her mother had an assortment of friends she found herself drawn to early on as well. Miss Lucy was very close to her mother and was probably her most frequent babysitter. And Cana stayed over sometimes, when her lifestyle led to some in-between payments as far as housing went.

But Laxus was always there. Somewhere. He'd show up, anyways, in what felt like the most opportune times when she was a child. Or at least in the shade of nostalgia, her rose-tinted glasses painted it this way. When her mother was being the most overbearing or her aunt and uncle at their absolute embarrassing, he'd roll into town with a new toy and whisk her away to get ice cream. To forget about how annoying the others were.

Because Laxus wasn't overbearing. Or embarrassing. He was super cool. He let her stay up as late as she wanted, do most anything she wanted, and best of all, he had an awesome motorcycle that was parked in the garage of his apartment building which he swore to her, many times over the years, that eventually she'd see him ride, yeah, definitely.

Eventually…

But the best part of Laxus was probably that he went away.

Or maybe it was the worst and, through virtue of a young mind, a silver-lining was born. Laxus left a lot. All the time. Which sucked. But that meant he never became a drag and was almost always desired. Coveted. Leaving meant returning. And returning was always so joyful, it was difficult to recall the opposite. Laxus didn't have to discipline or worry or scold or nag; he just got to come back in the best of times only to disappear before the worst.

He wasn't the same as her mother. She knew him as her father, fine, and enjoyed, at least somewhat, the veneration that was attached to her father's last name, but he was hardly like most her friends' fathers.

He was different.

He was Laxus Dreyar

And Laxus Dreyar hardly felt any emotion, if it wasn't intense bouts of anger, self-loathing, and overwhelming confidence.

So it didn't make sense to her, what Mirajane was saying. That the man, for some reason, required more. From her. He never had before.

Sure, yes, fine, whenever he came to town, they usually spent his first day of recuperating together, and maybe some time after, but nothing concrete. He was a very serious mage and had a training regimen that, while occasionally he broke to allow her to accompany, Then there was his nightlife which, fine, she didn't know a lot about, but she also wasn't a little kid. Not anymore. She knew that her father saw women, sometimes quite seriously. And even though they always seemed to fizzle out eventually, he still had to allot time for this. And then there was the Thunder Legion who, as they all seemed to age, were finding their own ways, slightly separate from the man, but they still wanted their time with him.

Laxus had a lot of obligations. And he would be bothered to think she felt as if she were one. But was she not? She had a time and slot in his life which, up to that point, was filled solely on his end. While she enjoyed her father greatly, to now find herself at least somewhat in control of her world at large as she ventured further and further from home in search of greater adventures, she was discovering the same call that kept him so far, so often.

Aura just couldn't picture the man wanting her to feel any other way.

Not when he'd expected her to accept his own desire for so long.

Still, the thoughts most have bothered her somewhat. Maybe. Not enough to be there though, Laxus found, when he arrived back home a little over three weeks later. He hadn't intended to be gone so long, but the job that he'd taken had gotten him all tangled up and well…

He stopped by the bar, first thing, but of course, his daughter was nowhere to be found. He saw her main two or three friends though, hanging about, being nuisances, and after a deep whiff of the air, found her scent completely absent. While a month or two ago, he'd have certainly assumed her just hiding away somewhere, he felt safe in deciding she was just gone on a job.

Her mother wasn't around to inform him of this, but it was just as well. The slayer slung back a beer, made some passing remarks to the lingering about Bickslow, about how he wanted him to get the other two and meet him for some late night training the next day, before departing for him. If Aura wasn't there to keep him up straight, fine; he'd raid his liquor cabinet and at least fall asleep peacefully that evening.

After a good number of days away, his mail had accumulated a bit and Laxus was grumbling a bit, as he flicked through it once he stumbled through his front door. With little care for tidiness while having what he wouldn't admit was a bit of a tantrum, maybe, he was licking the obvious trash all about with little care. Flier for the new bakery? Toss. Letter form that woman he was avoiding? Toss. Postcard from some dumb city he'd never been to? Toss. Postcard from another city he'd never been to? Toss. This weird advertisement with a picture of a cat staring down into a fish bowl, but they were selling movie lacrimas? T-

"Wait."

And he said this aloud, coming to a stop in the middle of his living room as he clutched the strange advert in his hand. But it wasn't what caused his hang up. In fact, along with all the other mail in his hands, it was thrown with far less ceremony to the ground as he rushed over to where he'd tossed one of the postcards. Frowning, he moved to pick it up, realizing he did actually know the city. In passing, at least. It was one of the major ones, obviously, and had a really iconic tower, which was of course the focus on the photo. Flipping it over, he didn't find any hastily written note or anything, really, other than a signature.

His daughter had really pretty handwriting. Far better than his own. He smiled down at her signature, feeling a bit silly, maybe, as he crossed over to where he'd tossed the other postcard. It truly was a city he didn't know then, and he felt a pang of worry, that he didn't recognize it right off the bat, wondering if she was really alright, out there somewhere he hadn't ventured, but turning over the postcard only revealed the same thing.

_Aura Dreyar_

There was no message, no post script. She'd written exactly what she'd intended. Just her name. The same as he had to her, for all those years. Because that was another thing about the unspoken, wasn't it? Once you spoke, it was ruined. Same with writing. It had to be known, with no actualized communication, or else it didn't count.

And oh man, did this feel like it counted.

Rubbing at his eyes, Laxus thought it would be too much, to add alcohol onto what he was already feeling, and thought he should just have a nice, calm night. Like he would if Aura really was there. Decompress.

He'd been far too tense recently.

When he met with the Thunder Legion the following evening, Evergreen was griping, just a bit, about stupid Elfman while Bickslow kept making sure, every time she stopped, to mention something in passing about the man, to rile her back up again. But Freed, ever observant and knowing the man hadn't been in the best of moods the past two months or so, only studied the man as they all stretched out, there in their typical clearing.

"I take it," he finally broached to the slayer as Laxus rolled his shoulders, loosening up; a training session between the four of them was nothing to approach lightly, "that you have some sort of engagement then, Laxus?"

"Huh?"

"You seem...more upbeat," the rune mage offered simply. "I thought, perhaps, there is something you're looking forwards to."

"Nope." The man even shook his head, but there was something of a grin, maybe, one of those faint ones that the slayer only wore when completely unable to hide it. "Nothing."

"Then you'll go with us, eh, boss?" Bickslow took some time out of absolutely getting Evergreen far too fired up (he'd regret it later), to look over at the man. "We saw the perfect job, there, on the board. Me and Evergreen. AND someone else was there, with us, but I can't quite-"

"Elfman," Ever hissed his name and Bickslow cackled, but Laxus found himself shaking his head once more.

"Maybe ask the big oaf to accompany you," the slayer suggested with a frown over at the seith who, for all his teasing, feared even the implication. Ugh. A job out with Elfman. "I ain't goin' nowhere."

"A date then?" Freed kept up, but Laxus seemed unwilling to engage with any of them outside of magic then.

It was just as well.

Evergreen had more than a few...aggression to get out.

"Oh, Laxus," Mirajane remarked when they finally ran into one another the next morning, up at the bar. She was the only one on shift and, when she came over to present him with a beer regardless of the hour, she only made a face. "Lisanna told me you were back. Aura though, is-"

"Out. Yeah. I know."

"You do?"

He only shrugged though, making no mention of the postcards as he claimed a table to himself. "She's a Dreyar; one of us has to be out there saving you sorry sacks from peril at all times."

The face she made with different then, but still, Mirajane merely replied dryly, "Lucky us."

Pulling his mug closer, he offered to the woman as she turned to walk away, "I think I'll be stickin' around a bit."

"So early?"

"Not the bar," he grumbled at her back. "I meant… Magnolia. Home. I… So if I'm not here, when Aura gets in, send her by my place. Or out where I train."

"I don't really know how long it'll be, Laxus, until-"

"It doesn't matter." Lifting his mug to his lips, he said around it, "I can wait."


End file.
